Saturday, September 26, 2009

So, Who's hosting next year's G20 summit?

One of these reports is not like the others.

From the Korea Times (Sept 25):
Incheon is emerging as the potential host city of the Group of 20 summit in 2010 with South Korea becoming the first Asian country to hold a gathering of the influential economic council next fall.

From the Herald (Sept 26):

Korea has been chosen as the venue for the next Group of 20 summit, which is to become the world's main economic forum, a Cheong Wa Dae official said yesterday.

Leaders of major developed and developing countries during the third financial summit in Pittsburgh agreed to Seoul's hosting of the next meeting in 2010, the official said.

From Yonhap (Sept 25):
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's hosting of the G20 summit next year will be a boon to its image as well as its economy, equivalent in prestige to the Seoul Olympics in 1988, a scholar said Friday.

From the Bracebridge Examiner (Ontario, Canada, K'Brian's hometown, Sept 25):
My bolding:

Muskoka will be welcoming more countries than expected this June.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially announced this morning that Canada and South Korea will be co-hosting a G20 Summit in Muskoka, the focus of which will be the economy.

The summit will take place either immediately before or after the scheduled G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville and may be held at the same location.

“This is a great honour for Muskoka and for Canada,” said Parry Sound-Muskoka member of Parliament Tony Clement, who hosted a press conference with Huntsville mayor Claude Doughty following the prime minister’s announcement. “The eyes of the world will be on Muskoka and mark my words we will be ready for that.”

According to Clement, plans to host the G20 have been in the works for some time but a decision came to a head during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, held late this week.

The South Korean government was scheduled to host a G20 Summit in April but has rescheduled it to the fall in order to co-host it with Canada.


I suppose there could be more than one G 20 summit, but it sounds, from the Canadian report, that it will be a shared summit. {half amused, pseudo outrage}They don't care about Canada!{/}

3 comments:

Daniel Costello said...

Maybe they'll jointly introduce a cheeky resolution to the beef ban?

Brian said...

It looks like there will be one in Canada in the summer, and one in Korea in the fall. The G20 in Pittsburgh was a nightmare for the city, and I really hope Korea knows what it's in for.

kwandongbrian said...

I'm not a beefeater guy - except for gin, I guess. Still, it would be nice to have that cleared up.

Brian, I didn't think things through. I hardly imagined that there would be more than one summit in a year. Actually, I am not sure if I care enough to look into previous years. Still, the idea seems sound - take time to introduce your concerns, then leave enough time to think about them before making decisions.